Monday, 31 August 2015

The BBC's headline is 'Labour leadership: Corbyn under fire for Bin Laden comments'. So what are these dreadful comments that would cause such criticism? Well Jeremy says it was a "tragedy" that Osama Bin Laden was killed rather than being put on trial. What's wrong with that? It was a tragedy.

I wrote about why Bin Laden should have been taken alive here and here. It made perfect sense at the time and still does.

Wednesday, 26 August 2015

Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union, has had his vote rejected for the Labour leadership contest. He has publicly claimed that he voted Green in 2010 but should that stop him changing your mind? The Labour Party are right to limit voting to supporters but how do they explain this ban? They've also banned other prominent individuals like Jeremy Hardy and Mark Steel. I don't know if these comedians are proven enemies of the Labour Party or whether Labour is trying to rig the election but I get the impression it is the latter.

If there are malevolent individuals who wish to join the Labour Party in order to vote for the person whom they feel would make the worst leader, then this is clearly wrong and has no place in British politics or British society. Anyone who tells you it is just a bit of fun is wrong too.

It is also wrong to exclude voters who are genuine members of the Labour Party and wish to see it do well. However my main concern isn't about the exclusion from voting. It is about the exclusion from membership. Why have I heard everything about thousands of votes being rejected and nothing about thousands of cancelled memberships?